One of the favorite end-of-the-year (or even beginning-of-the-year) activities for the kids to get them sight reading and of course, keeping their eyes and ears out for one of those DEADLY Poison Rhythms/Poison Patterns!

Poison Bucket Patterns! takes students through 78 slides and 5 levels of Bucket Drumming sight reading. Students will play a variety of rhythms as the teacher scrolls through the slides. Each slide contains one rhythm they will play and after advancing to the next slide, you can elect to give them a 4 beat or 2 beat prep to read the next rhythm, whichever works for you. The less prep they have, the better because...

There will be one rhythm (the poison rhythm, poison pattern, or OOPS! rhythm as we'll call it) that students DO NOT play! If they do, they're out of the game.

Students learn the rhythm before the round is played. Be careful or you will be ELIMINATED!

• All regular notation is to be played on the buckets (or drums, or ground, however you wish), and the X notation (with a down stem) are played as stick clicks above their head (or you could apply it to a tambourine or other auxiliary instrument)

You can play this in teams, As vs Bs, however you wish! There are 5 background grooves that go from 80 bpm to 120 bpm to challenge your kids as they go through the levels. Levels begin with 4 beat rhythms and end with 6 beat rhythms with rests, quarter notes, and 2 eighth note patterns.

Have a great time with this!